It seems that two companies are going in different directions with the announcement that Warner Bros. Seattle underwent some layoffs, while at the same time Microsoft will open a new development studio in London.

The Warner Bros. studio in Seattle was responsible most recently for Gotham City Imposters and Guardians of Middle-Earth. Warner is spinning it as a staff reduction due to shifting business imperative, which made the decision necessary. Sources tell us that 60 employees were affected by the decision, and this is the second round of layoffs to hit the Seattle studio. The studio is currently working on Lord of the Rings: Guardians of Middle Earth.

Microsoft will strengthen its studio lineup in the UK with the announcement that they will be opening a new development studio in London. The new London studio will join other Microsoft studios in the UK such as Rare and Lionhead.

According to reports, the new Microsoft London studio will be focused on free-to-play titles and the micro transactions areas of the Xbox platform. The official Microsoft comment is that the new studio will be developing successful new programs and services for current and future Xbox customers.

Opening a new studio in the UK will likely be a good one for Microsoft, as the company will have a large and talented pool of resources from which to hire due to all of the studios in the UK that have been closed over the past year or so.

Sources have confirmed to us that Silicon Knights has apparently decided to scale back operations, and as part of this decision the company has let some of its employees go. The decision was made to allow the company to move to a core group focusing all of its efforts on future opportunities.

The interesting part of this is that the company claims that the rumors regarding the developers’ reliance on Nintendo are false. Nintendo is said to have dropped the developer following an unsuccessful bid to prevail in its lawsuit against Epic.

Despite all of the bad news, it is possible that an Eternal Darkness sequel might actually be in the pipeline as no one bothered to deny that this was the case. No numbers have been confirmed as to how many employees were let go, but we hear that it was not a large number.

Developer Obsidian Entertainment has apparently been hit by another round of layoffs. While the company will not comment, a number of former employees are commenting. The studio is best known for its last release, which was Fallout: New Vegas.

The numbers of this round of layoffs seem to vary, depending on which information you are going with; but it does look like this latest round of layoffs has affected at least 20 to 30 employees. The reason for the layoffs is also not clear.

If the whispering that we are hearing turns out to be true, the loss of jobs is due to the cancellation of the next-gen project the company had been working on. It is unknown what this next-gen title was, but a large number of people apparently have an idea of what it might have been. So far, however, no one has whispered to us what it was.

The developer was working on a new South Park title, and right now it seems that work on that title continues for the time being. It is not known if the developer has any other projects going right now.

After our news about THQ and the company’s new plan, imagine our surprise when we heard that lay-offs had been the order of the day. While THQ isn’t publically talking, the round of lay-offs hit the administrative and publishing departments. We don’t have any specific numbers of how many were affected.

Perhaps in a tip of the hat to the company’s most recent strategy announcements, none of the company’s internal development studios were hit. THQ San Diego, THQ Montreal, Relic, Volition, and Vigil were not a part of this round of cuts.

Our sources tell us that right now they expect no cuts at the company’s internal studios. Staffing levels at the THQ’s internal studios will remain the same for the time being, according to one source we spoke with.

Bethesda Softworks, the parent company of id Software, has confirmed that a number of id Software employees were shown the door. Bethesda claims that this is a normal part of the company’s evaluation of staffing levels to make sure that the studio is staffed to meet current projects. Bethesda did not confirm how many were affected by the layoff and if any additional layoffs were coming.

Bethesda claims that it is still recruiting and hiring qualified developers for id Software. Bethesda was very careful to note that work on future id titles continues, despite the layoffs. The studio is currently working on Doom 4, which is the next chapter in the studio’s long running franchise.

It is unknown if talk over id’s latest release, Rage, played any role in the layoff decisions. While Rage didn’t sell quite as well as id expected, many in the media were very harsh on the title, citing a number of shortcomings in its development and game play. Expect to hear more about this as things settle in the weeks ahead.

IT seems that heads are already beginning to roll at Skype, even before Microsoft has got its claws into the operation.It looks like the firings are taking place ahead of the deal's closure as part of a cunning plan to save the new owners cash. If they are fired after Vole moves in, Skype does not have to pay so much.

Four vice presidents, the company's chief marketing officer and human resources chief have been told to clean out their desks and collect their P45s , according to the Bloomberg. The business newspaper claimed that two other executives from a recent acquisition had also been given the elbow. Skype spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy admitted the staff had been given their marching orders as part of a recent internal shift.

Microsoft announced its intentions in May to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion--it's largest ever. It wants to integrate Skype's technology with the Xbox game console and Kinect motion-sensing device, as well as with Windows Phone.

SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive, based in Redmond, Washington, has been hit with about 30 layoffs. Sony has apparently decided to continue with its aggressive workforce reductions, and that has pretty much hit all of the Sony studios by now.

While sources confirm that long-time Zipper Interactive employee Travis Steiner left to start his own company, we hear that other employees may also follow. The remaining employees will continue to work on the support for the recently released titles and work on the development of new titles.

While Sony is spinning this as a standard reduction in staff, whispers we hear suggest that sales of SOCOM 4 have not been what Sony would have liked, and this has led to the decision to trim staff. Some blame the poor sales of SOCOM 4 on Sony’s decision not to bundle the Sharpshooter access device for PlayStation Move with the game itself. According to some we have spoken with, making it two separate purchases hurt sales in a big way.

Despite the news in January that jobs were safe at Disney-owned Blackrock Studios, the restructuring at Disney Interactive has reached Blackrock Studios. Sources tell us that between 60 and 100 jobs were at risk; and Disney Interactive will only confirm that reduction in workforce has taken place at Blackrock with no specifics on how many were affected.

Whispers that we have been hearing over the past couple of weeks suggest that a large amount of the studio had little to do with the cancellation of Split/Second 2. Sources tell us that much like the decision not to move forward with a sequel to Pure, Disney Interactive killed Split/Second 2 while the title was in pre-production.

A good number of folks within the studio are working on a new title that, while risky. apparently does have a significant amount of potential; but Disney does not apparently want to put two teams on this project. It is still unknown what this new IP is, but we are told that it be announced by Disney Interactive at E3 in June.

With the change in management at Disney Interactive and a move toward “freemium” projects at Disney Interactive, it actually isn’t a surprise that layoffs hit Blackrock. What really is a shame is that once again a studio that has a track record and heritage of producing quality titles is being dismantled. For fans who liked Pure and Split/Second there will be no sequel. Once again, both titles had excellent reviews and failed to sell: which makes us question Disney’s ability to market titles like these.

News has reached us that THQ has moved to tighten its belt by letting 33 employees go. Their spin is that 16 positions at Volition and 17 positions at Kaos were redundancies, and the decision was made to better align the studios with the current needs for the current projects at both studios.

This decision will not affect the release of any titles in development or the support of any titles that have been released. Volition will continue working on the new Saints Row while the team at Kaos will continue to support Homefront, prepare the upcoming DLC for release, and start working on pre-production for a future title which is expected to be a sequel to the recently released Homefront.

THQ says that the employees that are affected will be receiving outplacement assistance and will be treated with the appropriate concern. It is unknown in the case of Kaos if this decision is a warm up for the potential closure of the studio, as has been rumored for some months.

Bungie has issued a statement that the suggestion that Activision ordered some sort of layoffs at the developer is false. Rumors claim that this is not the case and contractors were let go for no reason; and, in fact, a rumored Email indicated that it was due to “project sensitivity” and “budgetary concerns from our publisher” and this is something that Bungie is clearly refuting in their statement.

While the rumor talk rages on, Bungie went on to say that it would confirm that almost 200 would be employed to work on the new multiplatform project that Activision is apparently funding. This seems to be where the rub is in all of these rumors, as Activision-Blizzard has admitted that they are funding the project. Some suggest that while the company has been belt tightening in other areas and cutting staff, it seems that despite what Bungie might say publicly they will certainly exert some budgetary control of the project.

Actually, we find it very unique that Bungie would feel so compelled to jump into this fray and feel the need to discredit the layoffs. In fact, Bungie posted on Bungie.Net an additional clarification of the issued statement saying, “Bungie has not experienced any layoffs or group firings of any kind,” and beyond this fact the studio provided a link to its jobs section as evidence that it is actually in hiring mode.

It is really difficult to what to make of all of this; but we doubt that it will really impact the new project that they are working on, and think it is more of a matter of public perception than anything else. We expect this story to slip away and not continue to make news if Bungie opts not to issue any additional statements, but it is doubtful that we will ever know the entire truth of what happened.